Tonny Emilio Trindade de Vilhena (born 3 January 1995), more commonly known as simply Tonny Vilhena, is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Russian Premier League side FC Krasnodar. On 6 March 2013, Vilhena was called up for the preliminary squad of the Dutch national team for the first time, only aged 18. However, he appeared as an unused substitute for a match against Estonia and Romania. Willem van Hanegem stated that it would be disappointing if Vilhena and Jean-Paul Boetius wasn’t included in the Netherlands squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, which he successfully predicted. After spending three years away from the national team, he was included in the squad for the first time. Vilhena made his Netherlands senior team debut on 4 June 2016, coming on as a 79th minute substitute, in a 2–0 win against Austria. It wasn’t until on 31 May 2017 when he made his first start for the national side, helping them win 2–1 against Morocco. Vilhena then made three more starts later in the year, as the Netherlands failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Russia. |
